O Canada

[kemonomichi]

I recently had a rant on someone's lj about things I thought should be changed in america when they posted something about The Westboro Baptist Church. It made me think a lot about the differences between Canada and the states and this morning I found a really great article (reposted on tumblr) from a 2003 Pittsburgh Post Gazette editorial:

An

Comments

[tasukigirl]

Lol. I guess that's what happens when your country is founded by convicts and puritans. They won't let go of their guns or religion. :)

Personally I find it annoying.

[kemonomichi]

I get ya.

What annoys me the most though, is when people argue that having similar gun laws would infringe on people's rights rather than protect the population. I just don't get it. I think public safety is more important than having the right to own a gun and carry it everywhere.

Ugh.

[tasukigirl]

It's in our bill of rights, hence people get all uppity. Strangely they don't feel the same way when it comes to citizenship. Then it's all about historical context. Ugh. It's this sort of hypocrisy that makes me hate my fellow Americans.

[kemonomichi]

Personally I think it's scary as hell - If I were to sit down at a restaurant in a mall or another public venue and saw someone at another table, eating quietly but with a gun holster at their waist, I would get up and leave right that fucking second. I mean, yeah, I get that it's in the bill of rights and that this kind of thing likely had reason to be there in that historical context but for the love of God, we're in 2011, and I think that it's an outdated load of crap.

Gun control laws aren't made to infringe on people's individual liberties and rights - They're made to PROTECT those damn individual liberties and rights.

[tasukigirl]

To be fair, some people are responsible. My dad has a hunting rifle and he has always been very careful about it. When we were growing up he hid it where none of us could find it and kept the bullets at our grandpa's house.

And to be honest, I think if guns were outlawed, people would still buy them illegally. It's like drugs, or booze during prohibition. Make something illegal and it simply goes underground.

[kemonomichi]

I don't have anything against owning guns for hunting when the owners are responsible with them. It's the people who have handguns "for protection" or just gun lovers having one simply because they can. Having a gun for protection is silly because there's more chances you'll get your own gun turned on you, or you risk harming and/or killing innocent people while trying to protect yourself with it.

I'm not advocating making firearms illegal, I'm simply saying that more strict gun control could lower the violent crime rates like it did here. Sure, we've got bandits who smuggle guns from the states, but the overall rate of violent crimes went down. I feel safe because I know that the gun control laws here in Canada will make it harder for lunatics to get their hands on a firearm.

[tasukigirl]

I agree with you completely. Our problem is the pain in the rear end NRA.

[kemonomichi]

Yeah, I know these guys. It's a super big organization and I have no doubt a lot of lobbying is going on between them and the gov to make sure the laws about guns don't change - Or better yet, get even more flexible, like in Arizona (And this, just weeks after the Tucson massacre) where they now permit guns in public places.

I'm glad you agree though, and I know not all Americans are like this - Telling you you'll go to hell for getting an abortion or having a same-sex partner while these same Jesus-loving folk strut around with a loaded gun in their pants. But I guess up here in Canada we only get to hear about the extremes....

The only thing we get in extremes here are snow, cold weather and hockey playoffs coverage. XD

[tasukigirl]

Maybe if we had extreme cold weather, we'd be too preoccupied with staying warm than butting into our neighbor's business. :)

But no, I am also frustrated with an older generation of fuddy duddies ruining it for us young folk.